THE ORGANIC WAY (revised 2021)
In the 2018 summer season, the greens were looking reasonable and bowling OK, but being managed at high cost by contractors. Signs were showing that we had potential problems just at the time we also wanted to run our own maintenance program. Were our greens in underlying good health?
Well NO; they had to be rescued from the point of near disaster by much hard work from Eric (and team) over these past several winters and summers. They are continuing to bowl better and better over time, but the underlying truth is they most certainly were not in good health at the start of 2019! They were failing due to using American golf green techniques in the maintenance program.
Soil analysis early in 2019 showed both our greens to be too acidic, depleted in essential chemicals and having a very low level of 'good' biological activity. This condition allows pest diseases to thrive on weakened grass.
Sandy-Loam (pink) is desired; Sand (Orange bottom left) is what we have.
Our ratio of sand to soil is far too high in sand (American green construction) and because of this both greens retained too little of the water that fell or was sprinkled onto them. Thatch was building up because there were no biological agents present that could break it down. All the biological life had been killed off over recent years through use of pesticides.
The cycle of decline from employing american greens standards.
The traditional course of action would have been to rip out the thatch and over-seed or re-lay the green like they do at Augusta National Golf Course, but this is a time consuming and expensive operation that is only effective short-term. We also experienced a build up of moss and fusarium disease over the winter that traditionally required continuing applications of even more pesticides.
Eric's dilemma back in that winter was either to continue further down the accepted route of using inorganic fertilisers (nitrates) and pesticides to compete with the diseases, followed by lots more water that would run straight through the green and wash out the fertiliser and would in fact just make matters worse in the long term, or we could find another way altogether, so what was to be done?
Taking overall greens-management back under club control, Eric Devonport in close contact with John Quinn of ‘Bowls-Central’ has indeed found that there is a program (several of us are now disciples of this approach) that will take our greens away from this cycle of decline to a seriously healthier place. It is an ‘ORGANIC ROUTE’ and brings with it a major side benefit; that is, elimination of the pesticides with attendant risk to the greens, insects, environment and critically to ourselves as bowlers.
Eric has proposed and the committee have agreed, that we should begin to follow this organic route using John Quinn from ‘Bowls-Central’ as our guru. The routine is simple, though intensive, and is based around bringing the soil acidity back nearer to neutral (recommended to be 6.3 or thereabouts, good for grass but deterrent to worms), and then with good aeration of the soil, we must spray special liquid organic composts (Compost Tea) on a very regular basis
Compost tea and other substances we spray ( such as 'Molasses') we were assured, and we now know, do not smell (beyond the amount clean soil or good compost smells). They are non-toxic, so are not controlled substances unlike all pesticides. The intention is to promote beneficial micro-organisms in the soil that break down the thatch, turning it to humus, improving our sand-loam ratio and thus promoting better water retention. This in turn liberates the necessary chemicals for strong healthy grass to grow. Stronger grass is then much more resistant to disease and so eliminates all of the need for regular use of pesticides.
If we may paraphrase our own Frank Bowden “ If humans eat the right food they get stronger bodies and become more able to resist disease. Stands to reason doesn’t it!”.
Cheaper,(eventually Mr Treasurer!!!) safer and we think effective…what’s not to like?